Back in the workshop last week. Very busy at the moment finishing instruments and a few 'urgent' repairs so didn't get as much done as I was hoping. Still, the new back hadn't come off in my absence so I took that as a good sign..

The back is fitted slightly oversize, so first I routed it down to fit the sides:

The neck block is in two pieces, a vertical bit and a horizontal glued on top which supported the fingerboard. I don't need the horizontal bit so cut it back level with the vertical bit (if that makes sense). The glued joint between the two pieces is coming apart so I need to do something about that, and the top of the block is also a mess where the old neck has come off.

So I chisel out the top of the block until I am down to an undamaged area, then use the bit I previously cut off to fill the gap. I push some araldite into the old joint and then araldite the new bit into the top of the block. It ain't pretty but hopefully solid...

A little more done on the Frankenstein Dobro, or Frankenbro as we are now calling it.

Spent a lot of time planning out the top - holes, bracing, reinforcement. As Wonks said earlier, we know the scale length of the existing neck, it's a 14th fret join so we can work out the bridge position relative to the end of the body, which is where the centre of the cone will be. Colin advised add a mil for intonation. Then I used Colin's plan for dobros he's built before to work out positions of the braces and screen holes. This body is bigger than his normal dobro design but it was easily adapted. I say easily, I spent ages faffing about measuring and re-measuring. Basically putting off the next bit which was ...

... to cut the hole for the cone. Out with a coping saw:

And then sand to size with a bobbin sander until the cone just drops through:

Then I started adding in reinforcement for the cone hole. In this design there is no soundwell, the cone sits on a 10mm wide ledge glued to the underside of the top. Using the offcut from the hole I cut a couple of reinforcement panels and glued them on. Note the grain going at right angles to the top:

In the meantime how about a bit of workshop porn? Here's a weird old tenor 'cyclops' Dobro Colin is replacing the neck on. The poor thing has been hacked about over the years and it came in with a banjo neck fitted. You can see the perch pole inside, which apparently I will make for my project later.

@Wonks - yes lots of new swearwords, and lots of new codewords for when things go wrong. So too much glue on a joint is 'Bobbing' after someone who shall remain nameless (oops my bad).

@Martin - to be fair I have the advantage of access to a well equipped workshop and someone who knows what they are doing. It's not like I'm having to figure it out myself and work in my kitchen! Although I think all of this could be done with simple tools and a workbench.